What Role Will 5G Play at Mobile World Congress?

What Role Will 5G Play at Mobile World Congress?

Future network standard 5G is expected to take centre-stage at this year’s MWC in Barcelona, but, despite the excitement, Marc Schader expects some of the substantive issues to go unquestioned.

"5G’s roll-out by 2020 is being primed as the next historic moment."

WARC

By: Marc SchaderChief Growth Officer, Havas Group Media

February 27, 2018

Once a decade, something historic happens in mobile. The first mobile networks appeared in the Eighties, GSM followed in the Nineties, 3G arrived in time for the millennium and 4G went mainstream in 2010.

5G’s roll-out by 2020 is being primed as the next historic moment.

Before December 2017 however, 5G didn’t actually exist. It was a concept, a misnomer, and foretelling how it will reshape our lives and relationships with brands and infrastructure was the equivalent of trying to predict the future impact of the iPhone’s launch in 2005 at the turn of the millennium when 3G arrived – impossible.

In order to maintain mobile’s ‘once every ten years’ momentum, however, 40 companies and organizations got together and fast-tracked the first 5G standard, published by 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) at the end of 2017.

So it’s here. 5G has arrived and all the talk, all the brand promises, and all the hype can now be realized.

Well, not quite. 5G ended up taking a back-seat at CES 2018 in Las Vegas despite both the published standard, a series of successful tests, and 2018 deployment plans from two of the four major carriers in the U.S.

The reason? The standard simply isn’t ready yet. And the chips and devices that will enable us to access the network are only just emerging.

The current standard still requires the use of LTE / 4G networks for various features. The complete, standalone version isn’t expected to be released until June 2018 and adoption of the standard isn’t expected to begin until 2019.

So will 5G fade into the shadows of this year’s Mobile World Congress? I very much doubt it.

"5G’s roll-out by 2020 is being primed as the next historic moment."

WARC

By: Marc SchaderChief Growth Officer, Havas Group Media

February 27, 2018

Once a decade, something historic happens in mobile. The first mobile networks appeared in the Eighties, GSM followed in the Nineties, 3G arrived in time for the millennium and 4G went mainstream in 2010.

5G’s roll-out by 2020 is being primed as the next historic moment.

Before December 2017 however, 5G didn’t actually exist. It was a concept, a misnomer, and foretelling how it will reshape our lives and relationships with brands and infrastructure was the equivalent of trying to predict the future impact of the iPhone’s launch in 2005 at the turn of the millennium when 3G arrived – impossible.

In order to maintain mobile’s ‘once every ten years’ momentum, however, 40 companies and organizations got together and fast-tracked the first 5G standard, published by 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) at the end of 2017.

So it’s here. 5G has arrived and all the talk, all the brand promises, and all the hype can now be realized.

Well, not quite. 5G ended up taking a back-seat at CES 2018 in Las Vegas despite both the published standard, a series of successful tests, and 2018 deployment plans from two of the four major carriers in the U.S.

The reason? The standard simply isn’t ready yet. And the chips and devices that will enable us to access the network are only just emerging.

The current standard still requires the use of LTE / 4G networks for various features. The complete, standalone version isn’t expected to be released until June 2018 and adoption of the standard isn’t expected to begin until 2019.

So will 5G fade into the shadows of this year’s Mobile World Congress? I very much doubt it.

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